You are not alone

I was particularly pleased to read the other day that the Tiger Mosquito has finally reached Lloret de Mar (Somebody I dislike lives there, and that person doesn't like the Garraf area), but I hadn't realised that this pest had managed to travel so far.



Helicopters blasting insecticide used to tackle mosquito threat to Britain.








A Tiger mosquito kissing somebody. Probably.

I can't believe it!

Nobody has noticed that I've added lots of links and grouped them for your convenience.

It took f****** AGES!!

Buáaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

It could happen to anyone, I suppose

Boy, 8, saves sister and drunk adults from fire

WARSAW, Poland – Police in Poland say an 8-year-old boy saved his sister and three drunk adults from a fire by calling police and ... (read more)


What a clever kid! Can you imagine!? Would your children have or have had the presence of mind to act so responsibly? Maybe he was used to it? It's kind of worrying, really.

Acrostic poem

In the mood for a poem?

Here you have a simple guideline for an acrostic holiday poem: http://www.abcteach.com/free/a/acrostic_vacation.pdf

I've done mine:





Luckily, modern poems don't have to rhyme.

(Ok, admittedly I did it in less than five minutes).

Looking forward to reading yours in the "comments", mainly Alicia, Mónica, Desi and Elisabeth, of course, but maybe there's someone else out there with a poetic streak in them, who knows? I hope so!

Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

I know this isn't free: you either have to suscribe or buy the programme, but you have a (very) limited amount of tries. For those of you who enjoy learning new vocabulary, even though classes have finished.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Urban dictionary

A friend sent me this link: http://www.urbandictionary.com/

It's a dictionary of (very) contemporary slang (American) terms, and a lot of them are funny.

A little bit difficult, though: YOU ARE WARNED.


Today's Word of the Day is "chronoptimist", defined as:

A person who always underestimates the time necessary to do something or get somewhere.

Eg:

"Hey, Cindy. you know my parents are expecting us in 20 minutes."

"No problem. I just have to wash the dishes, take a shower, do my hair, walk the dog and then I'm all good to go. See you in 15."

"You are such a chronoptimist! I'll see you in 45."

Come to think about it, teachers are kind of chronoptimists really: you think you've got pleeeeenty of time to finish the book before May AND do lots of revision, then things happen and bla bla bla...

News in slow English

Somebody recommended me this page: News in slow English.

It's not updated very regularly, and some things I tried didn't work, but it has some interesting parts.

Good dog!

Do our dogs really love us?

If I were this dog's owner, I might not be too sure.

Dog plays fetch with live grenade in Germany

Yes, at last!

German newspaper Bild yesterday replaced its usual topless girl model on the cover for hunky US actor Zac Efron.

Read about it: Move over page-one girl, here comes German 'Bild' boy

Progress?

And now excuse me while I try to find visual evidence for this piece of news.

Discrimination against nude gardeners

Really, some people worry about the weirdest things! :D

Gardening nudists claim landlord discrimination

Beware of British Tourists this summer...

They say "drink is the curse of the working classes", and Oscar Wilde said "work is the curse of the drinking classes", but what happens when the "drinking classes" are out of work?

Drink more, of course!

So just when you thought the British drank enough already, the crisis is in fact proving the opposite.

Read more about it here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/warning-as-redundancy-britons-drinking-more-1701327.html

Oh, I forgot!

Dedicated to Desi. ;)

(Some of you know why).

Studio version:


Live version with some film clips of the group and friends:


The lyrics aren't particularly interesting: just the usual VU references to drug (heroin) addiction and going out to buy the stuff, but like all songs, it's good pronunciation practice.

Run Run Run - The Velvet Underground

Teenage Mary said to Uncle Dave
I sold my soul, must be saved
Gonna take a walk down to Union Square
You never know who you're gonna find there
You gotta run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Marguerita Passion had to get her fix
She wasn't well, she was getting sick
Went to sell her soul, she wasn't high
Didn't know, thinks she could buy it
And she would run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Seasick Sarah had a golden nose
Hobnail boots wrapped around her toes
When she turned blue, all the angels screamed
They didn't know, they couldn't make the scene
She had to run, run, run, run, run
Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do
Beardless Harry, what a waste
Couldn't even get a small-town taste
Rode the trolleys down to forty-seven
Figured he was good to get himself to heaven
'Cause he had to run, run, run, run, run Take a drag or two
Run, run, run, run, run
Gypsy Death and you
Tell you whatcha do

Ten best conspiracy theories

For example:

The Apollo Moon Landing

The Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 was an elaborate hoax by the US government in its bid to beat Russia in the race to the moon, according some to conspiracy theorists. NASA footage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's sojourn on the Moon's surface is bogus according to some theorists, who claim glaring anomalies such as shadows going in different directions and the US flag blowing in the wind show it was faked. Click here to read more.



More conspiracies: http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/the-ten-best-conspiracy-theories-1695929.html?action=Popup

Sixth Sense

Very handy!

And I particularly love the way they chose toilet paper to demonstrate. Of all the things there are in a supermarket! :D (Personally I always buy Scottex)




More info: here.